Sunday, December 5, 2010

FABLE 3 REVIEW...I'VE BEEN WAITING ON THIS ONE

Fable III

Player Chronicle -- Posted on Nov 20 2010

Ah Fable.

A game with such a history, a fantasy RPG where you save the kingdom from the evil power (Sound familiar?) Anyways, this game takes place following the story of Fable 2, of which I personally did not enjoy. At first I was reluctant to play this game at all, let alone purchase it. A friend of mine had his copy, and I was playing that. I say was, simply because I am done.

A huge game with SO MANY SIDE-QUESTS (OMG) where practically every single villager has a quest for you (or 3). The main story line, playing right through can be tackled in about 9 hours, kind of short for an RPG, but acceptable. Exploring Albion is a lot of fun, both before and after the main adventure comes to a finish. Once done, I found myself drawn back to complete side quests I'd left unattended and to see if I could find all of the many hidden goodies scattered around the world. This is particularly enjoyable if you've played past Fable games -- Albion has changed quite a bit in your absence -- or if you've got some friends around to play with online. The co-op mode in Fable III is greatly improved. The screens are no longer tethered and you don't have to take up the generic role of henchman, which makes the whole experience feel worthwhile as opposed to the chore that it was in Fable II.

The biggest thing that stands out to me about this game is the near lack of menus. You actually walk around as your character in the pause menu, and you inventory is in various rooms at your "home base". The simulated world you play in is so flexible that it allows for a huge variety of things to do. Building a family, committing murder, taking up odd-jobs, playing merchant, or simply customizing the look of your character are all included as side distractions, and the world of Albion will react to your actions. Buying up houses and playing slum-lord to rake in cash is always fun. At the same time, since so little of the game is pre-scripted, things do go awry. Bugs pop up with frustrating regularity. Dialogue overlaps itself quite often. Wacky things happen that clearly shouldn't.

The good news is that I found Fable III to be a lot of fun, which is ultimately the most important thing you could ask of a game. It does have it's problems -- a few technical bugs occasionally rear their ugly faces and the broken design stunts at some of the more emotional moments -- but all told it’s a great game that is well worth your time.

This is a massive game, and yet it remains accessible to gamers of all skill levels. That in itself is a pretty special achievement. Tack on a solid combat system, an immerse world, and decisions with real consequences, and you’ve got a game that just about anybody can enjoy. Now whether it's worth you money or not, that's your call. During my time borrowing this game, I played about 80 some percent of the side-missions and beaten the main story twice. I still have not bought it, and do not intend to - yet I still give this game a solid 9 of 10.